My Majesty
by kotobaka
Summary: A futurestuck fic in which Feferi succeeds the Alternian throne and finds a familiar face she thought she would never see after Sgrub - and is not sure she even wanted to see again. Feferi/Araida
1. Coronation

My Majesty

_Part 1: Coronation_

Your name is Feferi Peixes. Today is the day you will be crowned as empress of Alternia.

You have long prepared for this day. Ever since you were a grub, wriggling about in the caverns below the surface of your planet, you knew you were meant to do this. The other grubs looked at your shell, saw the royal purple, and treated you with a reverence you never saw anywhere else. Even to the other sea dwelling trolls, you were a step above their caste. And you never found anyone else like you. Not once. You were the one and only heir to the throne.

After reaching the surface to truly begin your life, you learned of your duties to the troll race. You still had time—the empress at the time still had several sweeps to go, although one look at her and you could tell her time was drawing near. Though you never jumped at the chance to snatch away the throne before your allotted time, never perked up your ears in anticipation when you received word that the empress was doing poorly. It would all happen in due course, and you had no one to worry about stealing your place.

Even abdicating at one point did not hide you from what you owed to society. Playing Sgrub with your other friends of all different bloods and winning back your universe was one thing—going back to being the princess of Alternia was another. It took some time for you to adjust again, to become used to trolls referring to you as "my lady" or "madame". You were Feferi Peixes, though you are not sure what you are now.

Soon the empress's time came, and all the trolls looked to you to step into her place. It was not out of greed or even love that you agreed to take your place at the throne. No, it was something more practical than that, a sort of deep need to keep to your place in society. This was what you are meant to do, and you will fulfill it to your best ability.

Now you are ten solar sweeps, still relatively young for an empress. Though the birth of a new highest-blooded troll always signals the end of a reign, it does not ease the gossip of suddenly having such a young troll fill the shoes of the empress who altered the fabric of society several times in her rule.

Your lusus has plans for you. She will never allow for you to be the subject of gossip, and she knows you will work to achieve great things even within the first few sweeps of your reign. Although you abdicated at one point, you still have the prophecy on your side. You will unite the two races, as it has been said. Two races, highblood and lowblood. Two sides of the spectrum that have been separated for so long.

But as that crown was lifted off of the cushion and onto your swept back black hair, you did not feel that sudden burst of inspiration many leaders often talk about when entrusted with something so important. Some have greatness thrust upon them, you suppose. Although you accept and will carry out what you were meant to do, so you would hardly call it a burden.

You stand and turn to face the others in the hall, which mostly consists of sea trolls and highblood landdwellers. Your hive is now the royal palace, with rooms built above the surface to accommodate special events such as these. A sting darts through your heart as you scan the audience. All nobility here, not one lowblood, not even a teal-blooded troll. Everything in this society has been carefully orchestrated, down to who may view the formal coronation. You hope that one day you may change this to include all trolls, as it was in the distant past.

You smile, the audience claps, and you proceed down the aisle toward the doors at the far end of the room. Your long cape and skirt are heavy on your frame; you miss your short skirt with the tailcoats, it was so much more mobile. Why must you be afflicted with such impractical things when you are the empress?

Two servant trolls quickly open the double doors as you arrive, allowing you out onto the stone balcony to greet your subjects. Cheers and applause float up to you from below, and banners wave and young trolls point. The ban on adult trolls retuning to Alternia has been lifted for this day. You wonder in the back of your mind how many of them were forced to show up and how many genuinely want to be here today.

You stand there, in your heavy crown and flowing cape, waving to the crowd spread out around the palace island. This is only depressing for you, despite your lusus's praises of how great an empress you will one day be. The grandeur seems to cheapen what you are really there for, standing there as proof that no one can be higher than you, that there is an ultimate in the caste system and it is completely unattainable.

But you will not be so passive, not after the previous empress's rule that inspired terror in all that remember it so fresh in their minds.

After greeting the public, you return inside to the rest of the festivities. A grand dinner has been set out in the banquet hall for all those who attended the coronation, with a throne at the end of the table set for you. You pretend it does not bother you to sit so much higher than everyone else.

The dinner commences, with loud toasts being made and heaping platters of food being brought out to the table. You sometimes forget how much trolls can really eat, as you are not accustomed to attending these elaborate parties. The festivals like this in troll society are very rare, as it is illegal to host them for fear of an uprising breaking out again. Today is a rare exception.

Once the first course has been consumed and everyone has had a few drinks, the entertainment arrives. A group of musicians enters and begins to play, a magician attempts his tricks but is jeered out of the hall by the aristocrats, and a few singers come and go. You watch this all with mild amusement, acknowledging the performances when you should.

Finally, a sole performer comes out of the side door to give her presentation. She is thin, ragged looking, but she is draped in silks that are obviously not her own but are more likely her master's, judging by the shackles on her ankles. The music begins to play, an old folk song, and she begins a traditional dance. The hall falls silent for the first time, just watching her move with such perfection and ease. But you only stare with horror in your eyes and a knot in your gut.

It is her.

Your memories of all those years ago come flooding back, the other ten of you, the game you all played, the dangers you survived, and now the universe won back again. Every eye is turned to you before you realized you are screeching for the performance to stop.

Regaining your composure, you stand up, send a haunting glare over those present at the banquet. You step down from your dais and walk up to the girl, who is standing stock still, just looking back at you. She is not afraid, and the nostalgia of those indifferent eyes washes over you, almost knocking you breathless. Four sweeps, and Eridan is the only one you have kept in contact with. Now finally she is here.

You flick your wrist and snap your fingers at the guard. "Remove her chains," you command.

The guard shifts uncomfortably and says, "She's a prisoner, your majesty. Being held for desecrating the late empress's hive. Her trial is tomorrow and—"

"I said remove her chains!" you spit the words out at him like poison. He scurries up to her and unlocks the cuffs on her ankles, running off with them out a side exit.

You turn to face the other attendees. "I am dropping all charges against this troll," you say, ignoring the gasps of surprise, "From now on, she will act as my maidservant, and will answer only to me. There will be no opposition." The chattering hall falls silent again as you hold them all in another glare. You relax. "I believe this banquet is done," you say, smiling, "Thank you all and be on your way!"

As the guests began to file out, bewildered as to what just happened, you turn to your new maidservant and smile softly. "Aradia Megido."

"Feferi Peixes." She does not even bother with formalities. Because out of all of the trolls in the galaxy, she is one of the eleven who should never address you as such.

You extend a hand to her, and she takes it, her expression still a blank. You cannot recall ever seeing true emotion on her face, now that you think about it. "Come on," you say, "Let's get you cleaned up."

* * *

><p>This is a three part fic, so I'll be posting the rest as quickly as I can. I started this fic as a crack pairing idea I came up with, but by the time I was done writing it I realized I kind of actually ship them now. Granted, I ship pretty much everything in Homestuck so that's not saying much...<p>

Hope you all enjoyed this first part!


	2. Descent

My Majesty

_Part 2: Descent_

She is like no lowblood you have ever seen before. She is beautiful, a butterfly, brilliant and hollow. She speaks with eloquence far above her caste, moves so fluidly, but her eyes are always dead. Ever since she first came to the palace on the day of your coronation, she has never smiled or given any hint that she is enjoying herself here. She must know this is for as much your own ends of uniting the castes as it is for her own good.

You shower her in gifts, dress her in the best dresses made from silks from the ends of the galaxy. You must make her beautiful again, to erase the memory of when her ragged, chained form was first dragged into your throne room. Her eyes were so dead then, already resigned when she reached you. There must be something under that mask, something fiery and alive. But out here by the sea that fire is extinguished. You will have none of this, however—the empress always has her way in the end.

Eridan mocks you for this. He is disgusted by your infatuation, your obsession, with her. He says she has strange wiles, that she has led highbloods down this path of trickery and lust before, but you will have none of it. You remember Equius's futile attempts to mold her into a more civilized highblood, how he did such an unspeakable act as to switch her blood color from maroon to blue. No matter how much you wish she could understand you, you would never commit such a horrible crime as to force her like that. Her wild, untamed allure is precisely what makes her so beautiful, and, yet, so unattainable.

You remember back in the game, sweeps ago, when you battled alongside your friends of all castes to win back your universe. You remember her as she was then, strong and unperturbed by anything, not even death. Before the game she had been different, less frigid, but that is out of your knowledge. You want to see this side to her, though, this lively side Eridan scorns so often. You do not even know why you keep him around anymore, he can be such a nuisance.

When you all returned you wanted to see her again, but your hives and neighborhoods were too far from one another. You eventually were crowned empress, and as if by fate you stumbled across a certain Aradia Megido, on trial for the crime of desecrating the late empress's hive. One look at her face, even sweeps later, brought back all that insatiable curiosity and wanting you had not known you had back then, and you called off the trial to take her in as a maidservant.

But she will not be moved. Is there nothing you can do to light a fire in those yellow eyes? Even a you touch her, kiss her, bite her, there is nothing. She may reciprocate at times, but there is no feeling, no passion behind it. her long fingers brushing against your skin mean nothing to her, and consequently mean nothing to you. It only drives you even more mad.

At times you hear her mention a name to the other servants: Sollux. You vaguely remember it, too, and remember the brief matespritship you two shared in the game, but a matespritship when you were six sweeps versus your feelings and lust now at ten sweeps are radically different.

She will forget about him. You will not have her mind wandering to another while yours is so trapped and fixated on her. It is not enough, it is never enough. You will not be refused by someone of a lower caste than you. Every dead glance she gives you, every lackluster kiss she presses to your lips, it only reminds you that being empress does not give you everything. So why is Aradia the one thing you cannot have?

She is like a poison, seeping into your mind. You begin to dole out harsher punishments to criminals, sign stricter acts into law. You cannot allow the troll race to deteriorate into anarchy as you work to unite the castes. There must still be order, despite the chaos in your mind. More trolls are brought in for trial and the gallows hang low with the convicted. You will not have any other trolls traveling about the galaxy capable of such maddening trickery—but you are not the one being tricked, you are the one in control. Always in control.

Eridan does not speak to you anymore, claiming you too tainted by low blood. The last thing he ever says to you before returning to his hive for good is that you are unfit to be empress.

Your love for her has turned into an obsession, a hatred. There is blood now when you sleep with her, deep maroon bleeding from bites and scratches. You must make her feel something, and if it is not love she will look at you with, then let it be hatred instead. Her eyes are still soulless and dead, but her teeth are sharp and perfect and she makes the occasional use of them. Those times when you nurse your wounds afterwards almost feel sincere.

You hate her like you never knew you could hate another troll. You curse her name, despise how much you need her and yet cannot have her even when she is right there under you and running her hands through your clothes and unbuttoning your dresses. She is indifferent, only doing the bare minimum to be passable but never satisfy you. Does she realize how much you hate her, why you hate her? You so wish you could kill her, send her off to the gallows to be hanged and her body desecrated before a crowd to prove your hatred, but the thought of ending her life, leaving you all alone, is too much for you to handle. She has stopped mentioning Sollux, does this mean that you have won at last? But the intense desire in your heart, your need for her touch, burns so vividly that you know this battle is not finished.

You do not know if this will ever be won, but you continue on. You may be locked in this terrible maze forever, but you know one day this ordeal will come to fruition—because you are only doing this for her own good.

* * *

><p>Sweet, so we've got some blackrom up in here! I really liked writing this - it was the first part of this fic I wrote, actually. I loved writing Feferi's thought process and slow progression into insanity and hatred (that sounds so creepy... eh, I'm a writer, it's what I do). I never thought I'd write a Feferi centric fic, but this was fascinating to plan and work on! And I also discovered I really like writing kismesis, who knew?<p> 


	3. Antithesis

My Majesty

_Part 3: Antithesis_

Your name is Aradia Megido. You were arrested for trespassing on the late empress's hive.

You have always had an affinity for archeology. After the great empress of millennia passed, you were lucky enough to still be just young enough to still remain on Alternia before you would be required to take to the stars. Your curiosity led you to the now empty hive palace. It really was beautiful, despite having fallen into disrepair since its inhabitant's demise. The vaulted ceilings, the spacious rooms, it rose out of the sea life a desolate island. There were rooms above the surface for trials and just, you suppose, because the empress had the time to build up her hive.

You don't know how many days you spend in there, climbing through the empty rooms and going for the occasional swim through submerged rooms. You only wish you had the money for more advanced diving gear so you could explore deeper.

One thing you never expected to see, though, was Terezi Pyrope standing over you one day as you resurface from exploring the underwater caverns. She is different from how you remember her, more intense. She's gotten taller, though she is still only up to your chin. She still wears the pointed red glasses and carries her cane, but she stares you down with a disdain that you do not think suits her. Justice has always been her game, and she will play it until it is won.

She arrests you on the spot. You consider fighting back or protesting, but you know there is no convincing her to set you free. She puts you in chains, sentences you to trial, it all moves too fast. You want to ask her so many questions about Karkat, about Nepeta, about anyone, really, because you haven't seen anyone aside from Sollux since the end of the session, but she will not listen to a word.

It is so strange to be so helpless now. Here on Alternia where your red wings are gone and time moves forward at a constant pace, you are forced into passiveness and agreement you would never stand for in Sgrub. You are okay with a lot of things, but powerlessness is not one of them.

Sollux. That name. you miss him—missed him, anyway, since now you know the chances of ever seeing him again are very, very slim. You come to accept that your days are numbered—you are charged with high treason for desecration of the empress's hive, after all. Something in the back of your mind wonders if this harsh treatment is in part because of your rusty low blood, but you resent the thought that Terezi would let something like that dictate her judgment. She is a legislacerator now, but hardly an unjust one—that would just go against her nature.

Nonetheless, His Honorable Tyranny sentences you to death by hanging. You wait patiently in your cell for the guards to come and take you away, thinking of Sollux on occasion but not for long before the fact catches up with you that you will never see him again. He was so happy to see you alive again back then, too.

You thought luck was on your side for a rare moment when the guards saw you singing and dancing alone in your cell. Thought you'd finally cracked, but it is better to feign insanity and find yourself a slave than to simply be faced with the gallows. Or so you thought.

As you knew before, the empress had just passed and a new empress will take her place soon. You are taken away, dressed up in silks like a doll, sent out to perform for the banquet. You do not need any introductions, you know exactly who it is sitting up there on the dais.

You begin to dance, but stop only a few beats in when you hear her voice screeching for the music to stop. You watch as she rushes down from her throne—she hadn't looked comfortable up there, anyway—and demands to have your chains removed.

Your luck really is on your side today. You never even considered yourself a lucky person before now, as luck was never your responsibility. Regardless of duty, however, luck can always be enjoyed.

She announces your new place as her maidservant and dismisses the banquet. You never saw much of her in Sgrub, but you will not deny her anything for now. It would be too risky, and you are okay with tolerating anything if it means your freedom. But none of this will come easily for her; you will not be as passive and submissive to her wills as she expects you to be. Agreement does not come without a hefty price, and satisfaction even more so.

You quickly decide that you hate her. All you see when you look at her is desperation: desperation to fill the shoes of the former empress, desperation to "unite the castes", desperation for you. The last one is especially pathetic. She looks at you with such intense desire, and yet still attempts to ask it. it's ridiculous, the way she decorates you with jewels and silks and tries to teach you about highblood society. Not even Equius was so obsessive, and he trapped you in a blue-blooded robot body after your death. You never did quite get over that, though you look back on it now with your classic indifference. These highbloods are ultimately all the same to you, all so fixated on domesticating a rusty lowblood like you like a rare wild animal.

Two can play at this game. While you have seen what troll society can do from both sides of the spectrum, you've been indifferent to it for so long. But now that you are so close to the epicenter of it all, why not try and make a few tweaks?

Slowly, she begins to crack. She becomes possessive, needy. But you let her believe she still has control, for now. A powerless monarch is no fun at all. Her affection for you slowly dissipates, replaced by resentment that only makes you want to laugh, because it will never measure up to the hatred you feel for her. But indifference is key to this act, and you keep up the mask. It amuses you, the way she looks so pained whenever you're around—the one thing she cannot have as empress even when you are the one in her bed every night, scratching her delicate skin with a perfect nail until you draw that perfect violet royal blood.

The first time she slaps you, you just stare back. You've seen much worse, and a petty strike from a desperate highblood can hardly make you flinch anymore. But then she's got you thrown up against the wall, pressing kisses to your jaw, your neck, your lips. Her nails sink into your skin and she bites your lip hard with her needle sharp teeth. You resist smirking at the tears beading at the corners of her eyes—are they out of hopelessness? Anger? Fear? Whatever their source, you know they're signs of her finally beginning to break. You stand there, expressionless, and let her kiss and cry herself out like always, but this time there's a hint of resignation that almost makes your bleeding lips curl into a smile.

Troll society has been upended; the gallows hang low with the newly convicted. You have not seen Terezi since your arrest—perhaps she went into hiding when the monarchy began to crack. Highbloods run away to the stars sooner and sooner, lowbloods stew with the possibility of revolution. The entire troll race is on the brink of chaos, and the tipping point of it all is kissing you and crying in your arms and cursing your existence.

You are not familiar with the finer points of gambling, but you do believe her majesty has lost this one.

* * *

><p>I forgot to mention in my notes from the last chapter: in my planning for this fic, I wasn't sure what quadrant to put them in. At first I was thinking matesprits, but then I remembered Feferi's little cuttlefish hobby and how she imprisons them "for their own good". It got me thinking that she's not all sweet and easygoing in relationships, and that she can be quite possessive and, probably as a result, blind to the effect her decisions have on others. I finished Fef's part of the fic, but I thought there needed to be more to get the full picture. Writing the flip side of the story was very interesting! I hope you all enjoyed it!<p> 


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